The American Society of Civil Engineers publishes an annual evaluation of the infrastructure of the United States. There are tens of thousands of bridges in the U.S., most of them built long ago and ill maintained. The ASCE says that a quarter of the nation's bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete." Water systems, dams, and other infrastructure is also old and in need of repair.

But politicians are reluctant to sponsor remediation projects because they lack appeal and pizazz. It's much more exciting and attractive to voters to grandstand about a new project. There's no interest in spending money on existing structures and systems.

The ASCE estimates that $2.2 trillion needs to be spent repairing existing infrastructure. Imagine how many jobs that would create. But remediation projects are boring so we'll have to wait until serious failures become common and people die before something is done about this problem.

The American Society of Civil Engineers publishes an annual evaluation of the infrastructure of the United States. There are tens of thousands of bridges in the U.S., most of them built long ago and ill maintained. The ASCE says that a quarter of the nation's bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete." Water systems, dams, and other infrastructure is also old and in need of repair.

But politicians are reluctant to sponsor remediation projects because they lack appeal and pizazz. It's much more exciting and attractive to voters to grandstand about a new project. There's no interest in spending money on existing structures and systems.

The ASCE estimates that $2.2 trillion needs to be spent repairing existing infrastructure. Imagine how many jobs that would create. But remediation projects are boring so we'll have to wait until serious failures become common and people die before something is done about this problem.

Friday, November 23, 2012

August 11, 3114 BC marks the beginning of the
current calendric cycle of the Mayan Long Count calendar. The Mayan
calendar is comprised of repeating periods that result from the Mayan
base-20 positional number system.

The
Mayans were the first humans to invent a positional number system like
our decimal system—a system based on powers of a number base plus the
idea of a numeral that represents zero. A positional number system must
have some way to represent the value zero. In contrast to our base-10
system, the Mayans chose base-20. So instead of decimal places Mayan
numbers have vigesimal places. Instead of the decimal system of nine
numerals plus zero, Mayan numbers are composed of 19 numerals, plus
zero. In the decimal system, each digit represents a power of ten. In
the Mayan system, each digit represents a power of 20. A positional
number system is a necessity for doing serious mathematics. Imagine
doing even simple addition with a non-positional system like Roman
numerals.

Our Gregorian calendar uses
decimal numbers for years and a messy system based on the arbitrary
values 7, 28, 29, 30, and 31 for weeks and months. We call the periods
of our calendar days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and
millennia.

The Mayan Long Count system is much cleaner. The periods correspond to vigesimal places of a Long Count date and are named
k'in, uinal, tun, k'atun, baktun, piktun, etc., each representing a
power of 20 except the the second place, the uinal, which is base-18.
(This results in the 20x18 = 360 day count in the lowest two places to represent the 360 day Mayan year.)
From the third place on up, the count is purely vigesimal.

The
Mayans actually used three calendars side-by-side. The Tzolkin and the
Ha'ab calendars are designed to keep track of holidays and astronomical
/ planting cycles. Those calendars restart every 52 years and don't
concern us here. The third calendar, the Maya Long Count calendar,
counts an unlimited number of days from a specified starting point using
a modified base-20 system that accommodates the 360 day Mayan year.
Because this calendar is unlimited, Long Count dates are inscribed in
monuments intended to last for a long time.

Now let's
connect some of the Mayan Long Count periods with real numbers. The
first vigesimal place, the kin, counts 20 day cycles. The second place,
the uinal, counts base-18. Together, the first and second places roll
over every 360 days, which is the length of the Mayan year, and the
count carries into the third digit. The third digit, tun, counts 20
Mayan years. The fourth digit, k'atun, counts 20 tuns, or 400 Mayan
years, which is 394.25 years on our Gregorian calendar. It is this 394
year cycle that is going to roll over in December 20, 2012, and the next
vigesimal place, the baktun, will increase from 12 to 13. We are now
in the 13th baktun since the start of the Long Count calendar (like
saying we're in the 21st century in our calendar). The next baktun
begins on December 21, 2012.

A baktun is a period of
144,000 days or 394.25 Gregorian years. The Classic Period of Mayan
history occurred during the 8th and 9th baktuns. The last day of the
13th baktun occurs on Dec 20, 2012 in the Gregorian calendar, which is
12.19.19.17.19 on the Mayan Long Count calendar. The 14th baktun begins
on 13.0.0.0.0 (Long Count) or Dec 21, 2010 (Gregorian).

When
20 baktuns are completed (7,885 years from the starting point in 3114
BCE) a new piktun begins and the baktun starts counting again from
zero. The pictun isn't normally written on Long Count dates because
it's assumed. Just like we don't write leading zeros on Gregorian
years. We don't write 000002012, just 2012. When 20 pictuns are
completed, or 157,700 years, a new kalabtun begins. In fact there are
two more digits defined beyond these in the Mayan Long Count Calendar,
the k'inchiltun and the alautun. The Mayan Long Count calendar has
places already define and named that carry it another 1.2 billion
years. In our calendar we're only named periods out to millennia. The
Mayans had a much longer view of time. And even after 1.2 billion years
have elapsed and the named periods of the Mayan calendar are filled,
the calendar still doesn't end. You just keep adding more digits to the
year, the same as we will do when our year passes 9999.

In
light of this, the idea that the Mayan calendar ends is especially
ridiculous. The Long Count calendar is defined, with named periods, 1.2
billion years out into the future. It would make more sense to say
that our calendar ends in 9999, since we haven't named any periods
beyond the millennium. But the hoopla about the new baktun (similar to a
century on our calendar) makes for lots of book and movie sales.

August 11, 3114 BC marks the beginning of the
current calendric cycle of the Mayan Long Count calendar. The Mayan
calendar is comprised of repeating periods that result from the Mayan
base-20 positional number system.

The
Mayans were the first humans to invent a positional number system like
our decimal system—a system based on powers of a number base plus the
idea of a numeral that represents zero. A positional number system must
have some way to represent the value zero. In contrast to our base-10
system, the Mayans chose base-20. So instead of decimal places Mayan
numbers have vigesimal places. Instead of the decimal system of nine
numerals plus zero, Mayan numbers are composed of 19 numerals, plus
zero. In the decimal system, each digit represents a power of ten. In
the Mayan system, each digit represents a power of 20. A positional
number system is a necessity for doing serious mathematics. Imagine
doing even simple addition with a non-positional system like Roman
numerals.

Our Gregorian calendar uses
decimal numbers for years and a messy system based on the arbitrary
values 7, 28, 29, 30, and 31 for weeks and months. We call the periods
of our calendar days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and
millennia.

The Mayan Long Count system is much cleaner. The periods correspond to vigesimal places of a Long Count date and are named
k'in, uinal, tun, k'atun, baktun, piktun, etc., each representing a
power of 20 except the the second place, the uinal, which is base-18.
(This results in the 20x18 = 360 day count in the lowest two places to represent the 360 day Mayan year.)
From the third place on up, the count is purely vigesimal.

The
Mayans actually used three calendars side-by-side. The Tzolkin and the
Ha'ab calendars are designed to keep track of holidays and astronomical
/ planting cycles. Those calendars restart every 52 years and don't
concern us here. The third calendar, the Maya Long Count calendar,
counts an unlimited number of days from a specified starting point using
a modified base-20 system that accommodates the 360 day Mayan year.
Because this calendar is unlimited, Long Count dates are inscribed in
monuments intended to last for a long time.

Now let's
connect some of the Mayan Long Count periods with real numbers. The
first vigesimal place, the kin, counts 20 day cycles. The second place,
the uinal, counts base-18. Together, the first and second places roll
over every 360 days, which is the length of the Mayan year, and the
count carries into the third digit. The third digit, tun, counts 20
Mayan years. The fourth digit, k'atun, counts 20 tuns, or 400 Mayan
years, which is 394.25 years on our Gregorian calendar. It is this 394
year cycle that is going to roll over in December 20, 2012, and the next
vigesimal place, the baktun, will increase from 12 to 13. We are now
in the 13th baktun since the start of the Long Count calendar (like
saying we're in the 21st century in our calendar). The next baktun
begins on December 21, 2012.

A baktun is a period of
144,000 days or 394.25 Gregorian years. The Classic Period of Mayan
history occurred during the 8th and 9th baktuns. The last day of the
13th baktun occurs on Dec 20, 2012 in the Gregorian calendar, which is
12.19.19.17.19 on the Mayan Long Count calendar. The 14th baktun begins
on 13.0.0.0.0 (Long Count) or Dec 21, 2010 (Gregorian).

When
20 baktuns are completed (7,885 years from the starting point in 3114
BCE) a new piktun begins and the baktun starts counting again from
zero. The pictun isn't normally written on Long Count dates because
it's assumed. Just like we don't write leading zeros on Gregorian
years. We don't write 000002012, just 2012. When 20 pictuns are
completed, or 157,700 years, a new kalabtun begins. In fact there are
two more digits defined beyond these in the Mayan Long Count Calendar,
the k'inchiltun and the alautun. The Mayan Long Count calendar has
places already define and named that carry it another 1.2 billion
years. In our calendar we're only named periods out to millennia. The
Mayans had a much longer view of time. And even after 1.2 billion years
have elapsed and the named periods of the Mayan calendar are filled,
the calendar still doesn't end. You just keep adding more digits to the
year, the same as we will do when our year passes 9999.

In
light of this, the idea that the Mayan calendar ends is especially
ridiculous. The Long Count calendar is defined, with named periods, 1.2
billion years out into the future. It would make more sense to say
that our calendar ends in 9999, since we haven't named any periods
beyond the millennium. But the hoopla about the new baktun (similar to a
century on our calendar) makes for lots of book and movie sales.

Maya Paradise

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Hello, my name is Phil. I'm a writer, retired hardware and software engineer, traveled, multi-lingual, cosmopolitan sort of guy. Welcome to a blog of my thoughts on whatever topic or current event catches my eye, plus recipes, photography tips, you name it. I hope you find it interesting.